Student MoneySaving Club!

elisebutt65

pixiedust wrote: »

Quick idea for budgetting - get a notebook, and on one page, keep a running total of weekly spend, and then either on the page next to it, or on the back of the page, staple all of your reciepts (yep, even the one for the mars bar and bottle of coke!). Work it a little bit like a balance sheet - weekly budget at the top, then minus each spend. Start a new page for every single week. At the back, keep a "proper" balance sheet - list everything in and out, but just put the weekly spend in as a total rather than having to account everything twice. Makes it a bit quicker and easier than having to remember to turn on the pc and load up the spreadsheet each time you want to keep track!

If you keep track of what you spend, you won't spend as much on stuff you don't need, cos you end up feeling bad about it whenever you see that receipt for (yet another) <insert weakness here>

Anyone worked out their weekly budgets yet?

Hahahahahahahaha
<<Cue hysterical laughter!!!>>

I will have time to get up, race kids to school - race to train and frantically catch up on work on the train - race to bus and rush into class then do it all in reverse order, then around 6.30 it's T on the table, throw kids in bath, send littlie to bed and start homework and studying before collapsing exhausted. Weekend is a mad rush to clean and shop and cook food to fill freezer for the next week, & trying to entertain kids in between.

Oh and try to see BF occasionally as well :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Well that's going to be the first 5 weeks anyway whilst I study to be a teacher. After that it's 2 days in college and 3 days a week actually doing the job - Eeeeeek!!!!! But at least it's a local college so I may have time to get the shopping on the way home so weekends could be a little less frantic.

I hardly budget anymore - I have a meal plan for the week so all my shopping stays the same more or less now - I've had to be rigid over the last 4 years of Uni, so kids know that if it's Thursday then it's pizza day or it's Macaroni Cheese day on Fridays.

I find best way to do shopping list is go online at Tesco and make my list then print it off - i don't actually buy it online cos shop is only 30 mins walk away and I ain't paying 3 or 4 quid just to save my legs. I also have a record of costs that way as well and just update prices once a month.

TBH - I hate s/sheets and P/L sheets with a vengeance having wasted 4 years of my life working in accounts and I can more or less do it in my head so I know roughly what I have coming in and out. My typical food shop costs me about £45/week (prob less - but that's what I allow)and I get the cleaning sundries every 4-6 weeks and spend about another £15-20 on them - God bless Savers!

elisebutt65

freebie_junkie wrote: »

enrolled today woo!

I don't induct until 17/9 but that's my graduation ceremony day so took advantage of the online system and am now financially enrolled:D

Just waiting for them to call me back to to sort out proper induction - I need timetable and to pick up NUS card etc - already paid for online as well - Loving t'internet today!!:p

farfaraway

chika wrote: »

Im setting my grocery budget at 20 per week for food and cleaning stuff and maybe an extra £15 a week for toiletries.

I will see what I can achieve at these leveals for a month and then tray and make savings next month. I have a stock of easy to do meals that can be bulk cooked and I am going to wean myself off my organic produce habit.

The only thing that I cant comprimise on is my lotions and potions. However I've been home armed with lots of empty pots and I have generously decanted lots of stuff to bring to uni with me I am also going to have a scout round bodycare and savers to see if I can get the brands I like cheaper. I have also bought a copuple of bits of makeup for ebay, its much cheaper. An eyeshawdow normally costs me £9 but I got two off ebay in the USA for £6 including postage! I'm well impressed!

What you need is to find yourself a flatmate who regularly goes home to mummy and daddy who run a farm that produces organic produce, and the brings it back to you (that's what I've done, lol! not that i'm fussed about whether it's organic or not, I just like the fact it's free and tasty!)

I'm thinking of budgeting 20 pounds a week on food (I'll reduce it later if I can), and 15pounds per month on cleaning stuff, washing powder, toiletries etc...(I'm not as much of a lotions and potions girl!I tend to use the same things over and over)

chika

farfaraway wrote: »

What you need is to find yourself a flatmate who regularly goes home to mummy and daddy who run a farm that produces organic produce, and the brings it back to you (that's what I've done, lol! not that i'm fussed about whether it's organic or not, I just like the fact it's free and tasty!)

I'm thinking of budgeting 20 pounds a week on food (I'll reduce it later if I can), and 15pounds per month on cleaning stuff, washing powder, toiletries etc...(I'm not as much of a lotions and potions girl!I tend to use the same things over and over)

Wow, you are so lucky! I did grow some stuff this year but not enought to be sustainable. I also have a morbid fear of slugs so I dont think its anything that I can do in the long term!

ames123_2

An idea for extra money at uni: take part in those psychology experiments you see advertised that pay. I am going to try and do some this year.

influence

I have thought of a way to the 1000pounds challenge

Week 0 -£35
Week 1- £35
Week 2- £35
Week 3- £250
Week 4- £35
Week 5- £35
Week 6- £35
Week 7- £250
Week 8- £35
Week 9- £35
Week 10-£35
Week 11-£250
Total Saving: £1030

I think saving £35 a week is easy. Now how to save £250 in every fourth week. This comes to minimising outflow. How about changing your mobile plan from monthly plan to payg? It will save you about £50 a month. How about going out less for a month? Fewer pints will cost you easily another £50 a month. How about cycling to school instead of buying a monthly pass . Another £50 saved. Not to forget having packed lunch & using less internet counts. So I see that £1000 can be saved in 3 month without a problem.

It might be a pain in the start but I guess it does work. Without even needed to find a part-time job. Remember you have your student loan to start off the initial cash. Use people's money to gain your wealth.

Violetvolin: That's what the 'rich dad poor dad' teaches. Managing the cashflow of personal finance. Make money work hard for you and not working hard for money.

farfaraway

ames123 wrote: »

An idea for extra money at uni: take part in those psychology experiments you see advertised that pay. I am going to try and do some this year.

that's a great tip. Also keeps psychology students like myself very happy, it can be a struggle to find participants!

I took part in some studies a couple of years ago. They tend to pay about 5 or 6 pounds for an hour, so it's only really worth it if the department is near you and you dont need to pay for transport to get there. That said, last year I did an EEG study (with the electrode caps) which was 6 pounds an hour, with 6 x 2hr sessions....I had 72pounds extra in the run-up to xmas!

muddyfox470

influence wrote: »

How about changing your mobile plan from monthly plan to payg? It will save you about £50 a month.

In my case, not so, primarily why does everyone need the latest and greatest phone, getting a new one every year? My one friend recently got a new phone and he wanted one because no one else had it and he wanted to be a bit different. This is just a stupid expense.

Anyway, I have found pay monthly so much cheaper than pay as you go. For the past 3 years I have got free contracts from the likes of e2save and coolnewmobile via their chequeback offers, it gets a bit tedious after a while but so long as you are organised you can get your phone for free for a year :P I'm proof that it works and my mates are always amazed that I've got it for next to nothing.

This year I didn't really want to do all that so I signed up with Three (again) direct on their Direct Texter 1400 Tariff - 1/2 Price Line Rental for 18 months [1000 Texts, 300 Mins, 50 MMS, 50 Video and £5 downloads] using Quidco I got £100 back, and at that time they had a £50 credit back by buying from them on that day, I referred myself so an extra £30 in the kitty, so that added up to £180 of hassle free cashback. I then sold the phone I got with the contract (SE K610i) on ebay for £80 (minus fees etc about 72.50). So the total contract over the 18 months is £315 minus the £252.50 using my luck, it means this contract is costing me around £3.50 a month! All because I was content about keeping my old phone (LG U880) as it still worked and it had more features than I needed anyway.

As for using less internet, for us in rented accomodation with broadband, using less doesn't really affect the price unfortunately.

So before buying something new, look at your other options and think if you really really need it (oh and you need a bit of perservence, some clever handy work with a calculator and eagle eyes)

Ian

PS. Cheers for that tip ames, I totally forgot about all those, however wan't able to do them this year purely because I lived quite far out, but this year I live right next to the campus, so roll in all these experiments... I like being a guinea pig

PPS. Don't be a stupid student and sign up to loads of credit cards to get loads of credit to buy whatever, use just one or two and ensure you set up a direct debit mandate to pay it off in full each month (or as much as possible), I have an egg money card to do most of my spending on - supermarket, shops, petrol, internet purchases (for extra security as well) as it pays a simple 1% on every purchase, so over a year it will soon add up

ames123_2

muddyfox470 wrote: »

PPS. Don't be a stupid student and sign up to loads of credit cards to get loads of credit to buy whatever, use just one or two and ensure you set up a direct debit mandate to pay it off in full each month (or as much as possible), I have an egg money card to do most of my spending on - supermarket, shops, petrol, internet purchases (for extra security as well) as it pays a simple 1% on every purchase, so over a year it will soon add up

I doubt I would even be able to get loads of credit cards even if I wanted to! I'm going to apply for the &more card but doubt I will be accepted. If i'm not i'm going to get the one that comes with my student account which I didn't want when I got the account a couple of years ago.

About the experiments. I meant to do some last year but never got round to it! For me it's no problem for where they are because no-where is very far in Bangor!

ames123_2

Here are a couple of similar threads that we can use for tips:

£1000 in four months:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=526173&highlight=%A31000+in+four+months

Get rid of £1000 debt: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=475596